The present invention relates to headphones for personal stereo players and more particularly to a submersible headphone system for adapting such players to use while participating in water sports such as swimming, surfing and sailing.
Heretofore, general systems for this purpose have been known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,797 to Eric Olsen. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,797 an electrical circuit is established to earphones having an outer member in the form of a cup placed over the ear. A metal diaphram inside the transducer produces acoustical energy and also serves as a water barrier. Otherwise, the unit is air-coupled. The system suffers from several disadvantages including poor fidelity resulting from sound transmission throughout the metal diaphram and a want of sufficient waterproofing. The latter results from placing the transducer at a position of high activity at the ear and from a construction which is inherently susceptible to leakage. Moisture resistant radios have been known for some time and is for example available from Sony Corporation under the designation SRF-5, the Sports FM Walkman (trademark of Sony Corporation). While the receiver of the SRF-5 Sony product is quite satisfactory, the implementation of the earphones in a totally waterproof manner had not been achieved. Sony advises that the unit is not to be immersed and indeed immersion of the earphones will ruin them.
There is, therefore, a need for an improved personal stereo device with headphones which can be submersed.